Three Word Week: Playing hardball

For such a diminutive guy Borelli had a very large temper. It was not helped by the fact that he was an easy target for ridicule and his fellow soldiers missed no opportunity to make the little man feel even smaller. His portly shape and speech impediment had earned him the nickname ‘Thoftball’ - a corruption of the way he spoke. He had difficulty in pronouncing fricatives and his effs and esses came out flattened, with an accompanying whistle.


On the day he finally snapped, he set about one of his colleagues with a large wooden paddle. At each whack he shouted: “Thwine! Thith is what happenth when the thoftball geth hold of the bat!”
It took three people to hold him back and wrest the stick from him, at exactly the time that the commanding officer stepped out of the mess to investigate the noise. What he saw was an apparently cowardly attack by a group of NCOs on an individual, which is why they were dishonourably discharged for conduct unbecoming an officer, while Borelli was promoted to Captain.

*********

Three Word Week is hosted by Steve Isaak and is, just like it sounds, a weekly challenge to write something that includes three words he chooses.

This week's words are:
I.) diminutive - adj.

1. Extremely small in size; tiny.
2. Grammar Of or being a suffix that indicates smallness or, by semantic extension, qualities such as youth, familiarity, affection, or contempt, as -let in booklet, -kin in lambkin, or -et in nymphet.
n.
1. Grammar A diminutive suffix, word, or name.
2. A very small person or thing.

II.) fricative - n. -
1. A consonant, such as f or s in English, produced by the forcing of breath through a constricted passage. Also called spirant.
adj.
Of, relating to, or being a fricative consonant.

III.) unbecoming - adj. -
1. Not appropriate, attractive, or flattering: an unbecoming dress.
2. Not in accord with the standards implied by one's character or position.